Mention European football and indeed the world leagues at large and one of the names that will feature at the top is The Bundesliga, alongside English Premier League, Italy Serie A, Spanish La Liga, and France Ligue 1. The Bundesliga started in 1963 and up-to-date it has been home to many stars, as well as supplied European football tournaments with some of the best players for years.
Although it's small than its counterparts in Europe, the league has been followed by millions of fans across the world as well as provided betting enthusiasts with plenty of chances to place their bids. Now with Bitcoin bookmakers, cryptocurrency adopting betting fans will appreciate placing their bets on their favorite teams in the Bundesliga. This article will explore the league, highlighting the teams that will be participating in 2021/2022 as well as those to watch during the season. This information is useful to the betting fans as they will know which teams to bet on come the season.
Participating teams
Bundesliga is smaller than other European leagues where eighteen teams participate. Other leagues in Europe comprise twenty teams. It has been announced that the league will be starting on August 13th, 2021, running up to May 14th in 2022. The teams which will be participating in the 59th edition of the Bundesliga include:
Of all the eighteen teams that will play in the 2021/2022 league, the following clubs may surprise many:
FC Augsburg
Hertha BSC
Union Berlin
Arminia Bielefeld
VfL Bochum
Borussia Dortmund
Eintracht Frankfurt
SC Freiburg
Greuther Furth
1899 Hoffenheim
FC Koln
RB Leipzig
Bayer Leverkusen
Mainz 05
Borrussia Mönchengladbach
Bayern Munich
VfB Stuttgart
VfL Wolfsburg
FC Augsburg
Augsburg was founded in 1907 and spent a considerable period fluctuating between the second and third divisions. It has been relegated to the fourth division twice but bounced back, eventually earning a promotion to the Bundesliga ten years ago. Since 2011, it has remained in the league recording good performances.
It has even participated in the UEFA Europa League wherein in the 2015/2016 season they reached the Round of 32 before being hounded out by Liverpool. Its current squad includes Rani Khedira, Jan Moravek, Noah Bazee, Michael Greygoritsch, and Marek Suchy. For the last five seasons, the team has been oscillating between 13th and 15th positions. With the start of the new season in August, the team is expected to perform better given its strong forward department.
Bayer Leverkusen
Bayer Leverkusen is an exceptional club in German given that it is not bound by the 50+1 rule where supporters are supposed to hold half of the shares plus one. Since it was founded in 1904, the team is owned by Bayer, a pharmaceutical company. Although the club has never won the league, they have been runners-up five times. Bayer has performed well in European tournaments where it has won one UEFA Cup as well as finished as runner up in UEFA Champions League in 2001-02 seasons. They finished in the sixth position in the last season.
Bayern Munich
Bayern Munich is the king of German soccer having won the most titles as well as participating in the Europe championships and performing well. The club also sums up as the richest and popular in Germany.
Founded in 1900, the club has produced great players who have played for the German side as well as in other teams across the world. As the current winners, they will also be starting the season as the favorites. This will put lots of pressure on the team, something that analysts argue could help fire them up to the top, once again. Football fans will be waiting to see whether the team that has fourteen international wins, becomes the champions this season.
Borussia Dortmund
Borussia Dortmund is one of the German football clubs to have won the UEFA champions league. The club which was founded in 1909 has been the German Champions eight times with the latest one being the 2011-12 seasons. They have also been runners-up nine times with 2018-19 and 2019-20 being the latest season.
Borrussia Mönchengladbach
The team emerged 8th in the 2020/2021 league table with 49 points; having won 13 games, drawing 10, and losing 11. In the 2019-20 season the team started so well that they were even topping the league in December. The second half of the season saw the team drop to finish in the fourth position and 17 points behind the winners.
Hertha Berlin
One of the oldest clubs in German, Hertha Berlin has a record of underachievement. It has never won the Bundesliga title despite being almost 120 years old. They finished in the fourteenth position garnering thirty-five points, winning 13 games, drawing 10, and losing 11.
Rasen Ballsport Leipzig
Rasen Ballsport Leipzig was founded in 2009, making it one of the youngest clubs in Bundesliga. The club has been performing well at home as well as in the European league, they made history in 2020 when they participated in the Champion League for the first time and reached the semi-finals, losing against France’s PSG. In the last season, they were the runner-up with sixty-five points; having won nineteen matches, drew eight, lost 7, and a goal difference of twenty-eight.
Wolfsburg FC
The fourth-placed team in the 2020/2021 season, Wolfsburg FC may surprise many when they become the top contenders. Having garnered sixty-four points where they won 17 matches, drew, and lost ten and seven matches respectively, the Volkswagen associated team is ranked thirty-sixth in UEFA Club rankings, three positions ahead of Valencia. This is a team to watch both at the regional and national levels.
The 59th edition of the Bundesliga may surprise many, watch out for these teams, be careful when betting for the matches which they participate in, and above all take advantage of the Bitcoin Bookmakers as they make it easy for you to participate in the bets.
Two prolific shoplifters who stole almost £20,000 worth of goods have been sentenced after being caught with stolen items in their car.
Thomas McDonagh, 21, of Warren Crescent, Headington, Oxford, was jailed for 16 months after admitting to eight counts of theft across Essex in December 2024 and January 2025. His accomplice, Martin Stokes, 23, of Aylesbury Street, Bletchley, Buckinghamshire, received a 16-week jail term, suspended for 18 months, and must complete 80 hours of unpaid work.
The duo were stopped by police on 19 January while driving on the A12. Officers had linked them to multiple thefts from Boots and Next in the Stane Park retail area in Stanway, Colchester.
Upon stopping their Ford Focus, police found the boot packed with stolen goods, swiftly connecting them to 11 separate shoplifting incidents across the county, including in Chelmer Village, Chelmsford.
One of the men had been using a jacket with a specially adapted lining to conceal stolen items while exiting stores.
As part of his sentencing at Chelmsford Crown Court on 27 February, he was also handed a five-year criminal behaviour order (CBO), banning him from any Next store in England and Wales and all Boots shops in Essex. The order also prohibits him from carrying any coat or overgarment designed to aid shoplifting or from possessing tools like de-tagging implements.
“The value of goods taken by these two men is significant and this investigation shows that we will always look to bring all offending together as we build the strongest possible cases to put people before the courts,” Sgt Dominic Potts, of Colchester local policing team, said.
“In McDonagh’s case, we’ve also secured a five-year criminal order, which means that when he is released from prison, if he continues to go to these shops, he’ll be breaching that order and could be sent back to prison.
“No business should have to put up with persistent offenders targeting them and we work determinedly across the county to identify the people causing the most harm to businesses, to catch them and ultimately put them before the courts.”
The sentencing comes amid increasing concerns from retailers over organised shoplifting operations, which have been on the rise in recent months.
The 2025 Crime Report of the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS), published on Monday revealed record level of theft committed against convenience store retailers, with an estimated 6.2 million incidents of shop theft over the past year, compared to 5.6 million in the previous year.
Independent retailers are furious with parcel carrier Evri after hearing that the weekly volume bonus that they receive is to be cut from April 6. The move is being revealed in a letter sent out to Evri’s network of retailers.
Mo Razzaq, the National President of the Federation of Independent Retailers (the Fed), said that he will lose several hundreds of pounds in bonus payments over a year, as a result.
“In a letter advising of the change, Evri celebrates the continual growth of shopping online in the UK, adding that more and more customers are choosing to use ParcelShops to send, collect and return parcels," he said.
“It goes on to add that parcel volumes have grown by tens of millions across its ParcelShop network, driving additional footfall and revenue benefits to retailers. And it expects this trend to continue.
“Evri then describes ParcelShops as 'the heart of its business' and 'important to our customers' and states that it wants to share that growth with us. Yet in the very next sentence, it advises of a 'small change to the weekly volume bonus, which will take effect from next month'.”
Mr Razzaq said on average he receives £23 a week in bonus payments but because of this change, this will fall to £17.
In its full year of accounts to February 29, 2024, Evri recorded a revenue of £1.7 billion and a record-breaking profit of £117million, which was more than double of the previous year.
Mr Razzaq added: “With Evri announcing record profits and acknowledging the key role that retailers play in this, cutting our bonus payments and denying us hundreds of pounds as a result is a sharp blow indeed.”
More UK families than ever are getting their festive finances in check early, according to Park Christmas Savings.
It comes as Park, the UK’s favourite festive budgeting club, has recorded a 22 per cent increase in new customer sign-ups compared to a year ago.
They join over 250,000 Park customers who benefit from the club’s easy sign-up process, discounts, savings hacks, friendship, offers and hugely popular regular giveaways and competitions with top retailers.
The spike in new customers comes as findings from Park's annual survey reveals UK families are feeling the pinch financially due to rising household costs, with over 9 in 10 stating they are actively trying to avoid the risk of bank credit card debt this Christmas by setting a festive budget in advance.
One in three expect to spend at least £750 this coming Christmas and one in five customers has already started their Christmas shopping for 2025 by purchasing items in the January sales.
Most of Park's savvy saving customer base is female (92%) with the key responsibility of the annual festive food and gift shop for their household.
“The cost-of-living crisis has hit millions of families in the UK and many are actively looking at ways to avoid getting into debt this Christmas,” Katherine Scott, director of marketing at Park Christmas Savings said.
"With Park, they can put an affordable amount away each week or month that they won’t dip into, and can then enjoy shopping worry-free once their gift cards arrive in November.
She added: “Over 3 million UK families have confidently spread the cost of Christmas with Park since 1967. It's wonderful to see our customer base grow and it's thanks to the trust we have built. All money saved is held in an independent trust and that is incredibly reassuring for new and old customers.”
Leading retail association Bira has warned that independent high street shops are facing a "perfect storm" of declining in-store sales and rising costs, despite modest overall growth in the retail sector.
The latest BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor figures for February 2025 show UK retail sales increased by 1.1 per cent year-on-year (0.9 per cent on a like-for-like basis). However, this headline figure masks significant challenges facing independent retailers.
While food sales grew by 2.3 per cent (2.1 per cent like-for-like), non-food sales remained flat at 0.0 per cent (-0.1 per cent like-for-like). Most concerning is the continued decline in non-food in-store sales, which fell by -1.0 per cent (-1.3 per cent like-for-like) compared to the same period last year.
"There is some positivity in the overall retail figures, but we are very concerned by the continued decline of non-food sales in store,” said Andrew Goodacre, CEO of Bira, which represents over 6,000 independent retail businesses across the UK. “Independent retailers predominantly operate in the non-food sectors and are worried about sales, especially with costs set to rise next week. The 140 per cent increase in business rates for smaller retailers announced in the budget will be a painful addition to the burgeoning cost base of running a shop."
The data shows online non-food sales increased by 1.9 per cent, with online penetration rising to 36.4 per cent compared to 35.8 per cent in February 2024. This shift continues to challenge high street retailers who are simultaneously coping with increased operational costs.
Bira, which includes Retra (the trade association for independent electrical retailers), notes that computing and electronics were among the stronger performing categories online, which could benefit some specialist independent electrical retailers. However, the overall picture for store-based independents remains challenging.
Purity Soft Drinks, makers of leading fruit juice and juice drink brands Juice Burst and firefly, appoints Jonathan Duffin as CEO. Duffin joins the business with immediate effect.
With extensive experience in consumer goods, gained at United Biscuits and Jordans Cereals in the early part of his career and then at Ocean Spray and Bahlsen Group more recently, Duffin is a strong, commercial leader with a proven ability to grow and develop brand-based businesses. His track record will help him to build on the strong foundations in place at Purity and drive the business forward through the next phase of its exciting journey.
Rooney Anand, Chair of Purity comments: “I am delighted that Jonathan is joining Purity. His leadership experience, together with proven ability to build brands and businesses, make him an excellent appointment for Purity and I look forward to working with him to steer the business forward.”
“I am excited to be joining Purity Soft Drinks and am looking forward to working with the team and developing its brands to take Purity forward to the next level,” said Jonathan Duffin.